Hey Deadlings,

Ok, so this isn't really a craft, per se, but it's still cool. The website is called "Damn Interesting" though, so I suppose that's a given.

So, the thing about nuclear waste is that it stays harmful for a very long time, about 10,000 years, give or take.. Long enough that we, and our great-great-great-grandchildren will be dust before the waste is safe for human contact. Therein, however, lies the problem.

How does one effectively communicate danger to a civilization we know nothing about? To figure that out, the Department of Energy assembled what they called the "Futures Panel" to solve the problem. They finally decided on a written message (which reads like something out of Orwell's "1984") along with scientific charts, and architecture designed to inspire a visceral response -- in this case, of avoidance.

Now, obviously, since this is a government facility, it had to be done as cheaply and efficiently as possible, but some of the proposed ideas are pretty cool. My favorite is the field of thorns, rather reminiscent of Sleeping Beauty.

The full article is here on the Damn Interesting website.

-Anthony

Labels: anthony, architecture, Damn Interesting, nuclear waste